American Wool Series

Friday, August 29, 2008

Free time?

Yet another FO that has been languishing - Montego Bay in HandMaiden SeaSilk. Gorgeous stuff and lots of mindless knitting for your buck. This is another Christmas knit that is currently being perfumed with cedar and lavender in my cedar chest. Yum. I'm pretty much done with the designed-by-me baby sweater and just have to pick out the buttons, sew down the steeks, and block. If you've never used the Elizabeth Zimmerman Percentage System (EPS) you should really give it a try on something small like a baby sweater. I felt like I had no frickin' clue what I was doing at first but I just followed the instructions and voila! Kind of like when you turn the first heel on your first sock. Magic.

Class is over and I rocked and rolled it with a fantastic grade and some praise from the instructor. Yay. So now I have this free time and baby preparations, more work at home, and knitting are filling it up quite well. Not having homework is a lovely thing.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Blar

Last day of class. I'm tuckered out. Teaching knitting is fun! Stir-fry is delicious. Talking about food before I eat lunch makes me even more hungry. Sneezing makes the baby kick. My feet are now their normal size. I like how everything smells like wet dirt after the rain. My cat sleeps with her nose against the arm of the sofa. Thinking about sleep makes me sleepy. Talking about David Bowie makes me happy. I'm off to bed.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tiiime is on my mind...


Episode 7 should be up soon, I'm getting ready to hand it off to Jessica for upload. Tomorrow is the last day of class and I've got about a paper and a half to revise for my final portfolio. I'm sleepy from the running around last weekend (good to have you Nickie!) and all I want to do is pop in a movie and do some knitting. Too bad, so sad. Theoretically (ha) I would have actually finished revising the first paper so I could work on the second one today. Yeah, theoretically. It's not so bad though, I have about 3/4 of a page to add to the first one and about a page+ for the second one. Knitting should pick up next week when I have more time and these balls of yarn will be transformed into fingerless gloves. I do have to say that if you're hankering for some delish breakfast snackles you should head to Cafe Flora for scrumptious beignets served with blueberries (that's seasonal so it may change) and vanilla custardy stuff. Mmmmmmmmm.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Charleston Style

Interestingly enough I came across this while doing research for a presentation. Fantastic dance moves!

Try A Little Tenderness Live- Otis Redding

My favorite ever ever ever Otis Redding song. Good listening for a Saturday afternoon.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

All Over the Place

Class is half-way over. I've been awake since 730 and already sorted laundry, read ahead in the next novel, typed up part of my assignment for Monday, and had a teeny breakfast (vanilla soymilk and dried apricots). There's a reason behind the early rising - my best gal is coming into town next Thursday and I'm trying to get ahead/catch up with all of the stuff I've been lackadaisical about. There is list-making involved and scheduled knitting time. I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing and my ability to get it all done.

First on the list are my gorgeous Endpaper Mitts (pictured). I love how the pattern is coming out, plus this is stashbusting from another Christmas gifty. The purpley-magenta is Koigu KPPPM in one of the new colors we have at the shop and the blue is leftover Smooshy in Deep Seaflower. I'm about 95% done with these with less than an inch of pattern and the ribbing left. Whoot.

I just noticed from linking the mitts that I should have done the magenta as the "light" color and the blue as the background. Oops & too frickin' bad.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Twilight Zone of Expectant Parenthood

I'm pooped. We spent all of yesterday looking - looking at new furniture for the shift that's going on furniture-wise as nursery preparation, looking for hours and hours at baby stuff at Babies "R" Us. It was incredibly Twilight Zone-ish. It was the first time I was in a store just for expectant parents/parents/friends of babies, the Man and I felt like interlopers. Maybe it was the fact that we were laughing at all of the ridiculous trappings of parenthood; microwave bottle sterilizers, Big Brother-esque baby monitoring devices, and strollers that look like urban tanks for midgets. We talked and argued and laughed and made decisions and I derided the whole "land of pink" that seems to be the baby girl's lot these days. It was a relief to sit down and scarf a grilled cheese with tomato and a vanilla black cherry malt. Delish. I'm feeling more prepared as to what our life is going to be like materially but I'm sure it's nothing compared to the reality. Phew.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Some News

Episode 6 is up at the website and should be up in iTunes soon-ish.

I had an ultrasound on Tuesday and it's a girl!! We're very excited and now I can get knitting on all of those sweet girly baby patterns. Hurrah!

Oh, and issue 1 of the Twist Collective is up and totally AWESOME. Great stuff!